Geraldo Rivera: My Son Is ‘Ashamed’ Of Me

While Geraldo Rivera (pictured) continues to try to convince the public that his recent controversial remarks about murdered teen Trayvon Martin are a service to minorities, it looks like even his family isn’t buying his latest brain fart. In particular, Rivera admitted over Twitter that his oldest son, Gabriel, is “ashamed” of his position on Fox News.

Gabriel broke my heart. He’s my oldest, 32, and he just told me that for the first time in his life he’s ashamed of what I wrote on [Fox News Latino],” Rivera said in an email.

I wrote him, and I’m telling you that my mission is to save kids’ lives in the real world, the Fox News host said. ‘We can bluster and posture all day long about the injustice of it all, but despite what Roland Martin or even my son Gabriel Miguel Rivera says, every hoodie should come with a warning like cigarettes, ‘caution wearing this could get you killed…“Gabriel wrote back to say I’ve gone viral for all the wrong reasons. :( “

Friday morning, the Fox News host made it be known that his stance was different from most when it came to the murder of Trayvon Martin by George Zimmerman:

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“His hoodie killed Trayvon Martin as surely as George Zimmerman. I think the hoodie is as much responsible for Trayvon Martin’s death as George Zimmerman was. You have to recognize that this whole stylizing yourself as a gangsta — you’re going to be a gangsta wannabe, well people are going to perceive you as a menace. That’s what happens. It is an instant, reflexive action.”

And just when one thought he might stop, Rivera added:

“When you see a Black or Latino, particularly on the street, you walk to the other side of the street to avoid that confrontation. Trayvon Martin, God bless him, an innocent kid, a wonderful kid, a box of Skittles in his hand, he didn’t deserve to die, but I’ll bet you money that if he didn’t have that hoodie on that nutty neighborhood watch guy wouldn’t have responded in that violent and aggressive way.”

Obviously, Rivera started a firestorm across the country, with many feeling as though Rivera is criminalizing the victim rather than criminalizing the murderer. I could very well see how Gabriel would feel ashamed of his father — I’d be ashamed too.

While some will say that Black youth — and so-called minorities — shouldn’t wear certain clothes because of the “stigma” attached to them, we cannot be so small minded as to believe that the clothing of Black males would have stopped them from being hunted, lynched, and murdered all throughout the history of this country.

Amadou Diallo, Sean Bell, and Oscar Grant weren’t killed because they were wearing “suspicious clothing”; they were killed because they were Black.

Once the smoke clears, Rivera will now be known as not just the passe talk show host of the ’80s, but he will also be known as a racist sell-out.